Who can forget the pictures of the Hindenburg bursting into flames as it was landing at a New Jersey airfield in 1937? Millennium Airship, Inc. is bringing back zeppelin-style, lighter-than-air technology with its new SkyFreighter Aircraft.

The Skyfreighter looks more like a flying ergonomic computer mouse than a lighter-than-air aircraft (it took me a while to figure out that is a “blimp”), and if you’re worried about another fiery crash, the Skyfreighter uses helium rather than hydrogen for its floating power. What’s important is that this thing may just change the way markets think about transporting goods to markets.

Here’s why… Millennium boasts that the “SkyFreighter will create a paradigm shift in the aviation and trans-oceanic freight industry with the ability to transport most any product almost anywhere on the globe safely and quickly and most importantly, at very low cost.” It also has a large enough cargo hold to carry large, pre-assembled items that would otherwise need to be disassembled before transport and reassembled elsewhere. Perhaps more important is that these Airships can travel 6000 miles without refueling, using hybrid technology (Millennium doesn’t describe exactly what kind of hybrid) to power its engines.

You may not want to book future air travel too far in advance, for the new pricing wars may not come from recognizable names like Delta and American. The LTA (lighter-than-air) movement is taking off (pun intended) and competition in the design phase seems pretty stiff.

Here are the Contenders:

Perhaps the leader in airships right now is Skycat. Their Skycat-20 (a heavy-lifting, cargo aircraft) is due to make its maiden voyage in 2008 with a 6-month world tour. While most of us probably don’t have half a year to gallivant around the globe, what’s most intriguing is Skycat’s plan for a mass transport ship that will reportedly lower travel costs to $9 per 100 km, with movability (akin to that of a cruise) and passenger capacity (600+) unparalleled in modern flight services. Overall, Skycat flies the gamut of possible uses at about 25% the energy use of diesel and 40% of traditional aircraft.